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Board of Game to meet in Kenai

The Alaska Board of Game will meet in Kenai for the first time in 20 years March 15-19.

Ted Spraker, chairman of the Board of Game, said the meeting will be an opportunity for Kenai Peninsula residents to voice their input on several proposals that will affect hunting in their areas.

The Board of Game will hear testimony from the public and consider the Kenai-Soldotna Alaska Department of Fish and Game Advisory Committee’s recommendations.

The Board of Game will meet in the Kenai Chamber of Commerce and Visitor Center to vote on, among other items, two proposals concerning the management of moose and brown bears on the Peninsula, Spraker said.

“Those two are going to split the billing,” Spraker said.

Proposal 144 recommends extending the moose harvest regulations in Game Management Units 7 and 15 for an additional two seasons.

Proposal 153, if passed, would open the brown bear registration hunt in intensive management units 15A and 15C from April 1 to May 31 and Sept. 1 to Nov. 1. The proposal would set the bag limits to one brown bear each regulatory year in the two intensive management units, and one brown bear every four year regulatory years in all other units.

The Board of Game will also vote on a proposal — proposal 147 — to suspend aerial wolf control in intensive Unit 15A. The proposal would also lower the moose population and harvest objectives in 15A.

Spraker said moose and bears will likely bear the brunt of public testimony because it is always a topic at Advisory Committee meetings.

“It’s just a given,” he said. “You go to a meeting and you start talking about caribou, and all of a sudden someone goes, ‘Well, we’d have more caribou if we didn’t have so many bears. Let’s talk about bears.’”

The Board of Game meeting will begin at 8:30 a.m. each day.

The public may testify March 15 and until 2 p.m. March 16. To register for testimony, a blue testimony card available at the meeting must be filled out. If presenting written material, at least 20 copies must be brought for the staff. The Board of Game generally allows up to five minutes per speaker, according to Board of Game proposals booklet.